Improving Agricultural Statistics in the COMCEC Region
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Table 49: SWOT Analysis and Needs Assessment for Afghanistan
STRENGTHS
 CSO and MAIL use food and agricultural
statistics in policy planning
 CSO strives to obtain food and
agricultural statistics from main sources
 Strong communication line exists
between CSO and MAIL
 Existence of national statistics system
WEAKNESSES
 No agricultural census conducted
 No sampling frame
 No budget allocation for production of food
and agricultural statistics
 Low number of qualified staff
 Lack of ICT facilities in the provincial
statistical cells
 Lack of communication and low level of
coordination within the Departments of the
Ministry and with other related Ministries
OPPORTUNITIES
 Recognition of agrarian based national
economy
 Production of statistics to improve
agricultural export market started
 Emerging issues of global warning food
poverty and climate change
 Large amount of international funding
THREATS
 Slow peace process
 Security concerns for data collection
activities
 Low number of national graduated
statistician
 Low satisfaction of statistics users
 CSO over focuses on service and non-
agricultural statistics
NEEDS
 Training needs for staff working at CSO and MAIL both headquarters and local offices,
 Study visits should also be arranged for the CSO and MAIL to exchange knowledge of
management information systems
 A comprehensive, interactive and accessible database on agricultural statistics
 Trainings on survey methodology, questionnaire design and survey implementation
 Technical assistance to improve agricultural statistics system
 Aligning agricultural statistics to user and policy needs
 A micro and metadata dissemination policy
 Publicly known data dissemination calendar
 A unique dissemination system